Fall River cop on sick leave arrested on assault charges in Swansea

FALL RIVER — A Fall River police lieutenant has retired in the wake of his recent arrest in Swansea, where he is accused of assaulting his wife and waving a handgun in the air during a domestic dispute last week.

Eduardo Raposo, 56, of 5 Kensington Court in Swansea, is currently being held without bail. He appeared Monday for a dangerousness hearing in Fall River District Court, but Judge Gilbert Nadeau said he would delay until Wednesday a ruling on whether to hold Raposo without bail for 90 days.

Raposo, a 26-year member of the Fall River Police Department who was most recently assigned to the department’s records division, is charged with carrying a firearm while intoxicated, and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.

After learning of Raposo’s recent arrest — which is at least the third occasion in which Raposo was criminally charged during his law enforcement career — Fall River Police Chief Daniel Racine said he immediately suspended Raposo’s license to carry a firearm and began the process for a termination hearing.

“To say I am disturbed about this latest incident would be a gross understatement,” Racine said. “The conduct detailed by the Swansea Police Department is disturbing and will not be tolerated by the Fall River Police Department.”

Racine added that the Fall River Retirement Board notified him on May 15 that Raposo had retired effective immediately, removing Raposo from the Fall River Police Department’s purview of rules, regulations and disciplinary procedures.

“However, his criminal charges remain in full force and effect, and we will monitor the case and assist Swansea police and prosecutors if requested,” Racine said.

On May 14, around 9:30 p.m., Swansea police officers responded to a report of domestic violence at Raposo’s home. There, the officers said they saw Raposo’s wife crying hysterically and running down the house’s driveway. She was accompanied by her son, who was armed with a pipe he said he grabbed for self-defense, according to court documents.

Raposo’s wife and her son told police that Raposo, who had been recently out of work on sick leave, was drinking heavily that day. They said Raposo kicked a bathroom door into his wife, causing her to fall to the floor, and then began waving his gun in the air, according to court documents.

While being interviewed, Raposo’s wife begged the police officers not to arrest Raposo, and said several times that she was scared he would lose his pension and shoot himself, according to court documents.

“He kicked me but he didn’t mean it. ... Please, we will just leave,” Raposo’s wife said, according to court documents.

The Swansea police officers arrested Raposo and seized a 9 mm handgun and a loaded magazine from inside a safe in Raposo’s home office. A few minutes earlier, the police officers said they had seen Raposo through a window walking away from the closet where he kept the safe, according to court documents.

The police officers said that Raposo had a “strong odor of alcohol,” and that several times he said: “I am a police officer and I know how these things work and what to say and what not to say,” according to court documents.

Raposo also allegedly said that there had been no violence in the house, and added: “All I wanted to do is go to sleep and this happened,” according to court documents.

Raposo’s lawyer, Joseph Silvia, declined to comment on the allegations.

Having been arraigned May 15, Raposo appeared Monday in district court for a dangerousness hearing. Assistant District Attorney Robert Kidd requested that Raposo be held without bail for 90 days. Judge Nadeau said he agreed that Raposo posed a danger to the community, but he said he wanted to examine Raposo’s background and have his wife interviewed to determine whether there were any alternatives to incarceration.

During his career as a Fall River police officer, Raposo — who in 2011 was among the city’s Top 100 wage earners with a salary that year of $100,223 — has been arrested on at least three occasions.

In January 2013, when he was a watch commander in the patrol uniform division, Raposo was on sick leave due to a “significant illness” when he allegedly drove while intoxicated and rear-ended and side-swiped a vehicle at the intersection of Route 6 and Gardners Neck Road in Swansea. The vehicle’s occupants were not seriously injured, according to court documents.

Swansea police Officer Richard Gibeau stopped Raposo's BMW about a half-mile from the January 2013 crash scene. Gibeau wrote in his report that Raposo was unresponsive, slurred his words and admitted that he had been drinking. Raposo asked Gibeau several times if he could bring him home, and became irate when Gibeau asked him to step out of his vehicle, according to court documents.

“I’m a (expletive) cop.... Can’t you give me a ride home?” Raposo asked Gibeau, according to the incident report.

In March 2013, Raposo pleaded to sufficient facts to charges of operating under the influence, leaving the scene of property damage and negligent operation of a motor vehicle. The plea meant that Raposo did not admit guilt but agreed that the facts of the case would have been sufficient to convict him at trial. The case was continued without a finding for one year — the charges were ultimately dismissed — and Raposo lost his license for 45 days and had to go undergo an alcohol education program, according to court documents.

In September 2005, state police troopers arrested Raposo on indecent exposure, and open and gross lewdness charges at an Interstate 195 rest area in Swansea. A state police trooper alleged that Raposo was masturbating about 100 yards away from two families eating lunch. However, the open and gross lewdness charge was subsequently dismissed, and Raposo was acquitted of the indecent exposure charge during a June 2006 bench trial in Fall River District Court, according to court records. Raposo returned to duty a few months later, according to Herald News archives.